• C J Corrigan, P H Brown, N C Barnes, J J Tsai, A J Frew, and A B Kay.
• Department of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, National Heart and Lung Institute, Brompton Hospital, London, England.
• Am. Rev. Respir. Dis. 1991 Nov 1; 144 (5): 1026-32.

AbstractA total of 37 chronic severe asthmatic patients with documented reversible airways obstruction were classified as glucocorticoid sensitive or resistant according to changes in the FEV1 following a course of oral prednisolone. The phenotype and expression of activation molecules on peripheral blood T lymphocytes from these patients just before the course of prednisolone were studied using flow cytometry. The resistant patients had significantly elevated percentages of T lymphocytes expressing the activation molecules IL-2R and HLA-DR compared to the sensitive patients. There were no differences between the patient groups in the percentages of peripheral blood T lymphocytes expressing the phenotypic markers CD4 and CD8. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from 29 patients were cultured in vitro with the T lymphocyte mitogen PHA in the presence or absence of dexamethasone or cyclosporin A. Dexamethasone (10(-7) mol/L) significantly inhibited the proliferation of T lymphocytes from the sensitive but not the resistant asthmatic subjects. In contrast, cyclosporin A (500 ng/ml) inhibited proliferation of T lymphocytes from both the sensitive and the resistant asthmatic subjects, although the effect was less marked in the latter group. Inhibition of elaboration of interleukin-2 and interferon-gamma by mitogen-stimulated T lymphocytes from sensitive and resistant asthmatic patients was also studied. Dexamethasone (10(-7) mol/L) significantly inhibited the production of interleukin-2 and interferon-gamma by proliferating T lymphocytes isolated from the glucocorticoid-sensitive but not the resistant chronic asthmatic patients. Cyclosporin A (500 ng/ml) inhibited the elaboration of both lymphokines by T lymphocytes derived from both patient groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

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